FORMER President now Rep.Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband, lawyer Jose Miguel Arroyo, should be permitted to seek medical treatment abroad  if necessary, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said yesterday.

Enrile cautioned fellow senators against forcing Mr.Arroyo to attend the investigation into his alleged involvement in the overpriced purchase in 2009 by the Philippine National Police of two helicopters which he allegedly previously owned.

Mr. Arroyo has a heart problem while the former Chief Executive had to undergo a third operation on her cervical spine. The former first gentleman snubbed the Senate probe last week upon the advice of his doctors.

”I checked with the medical experts. The guy (Mr.Arroyo) has a lesion in his heart. If there is a strong pressure, when your blood pressure goes up it could burst. And it can cause instant death. I don’t want anybody to die here in the Senate,” Enrile said.

”So I’m cautioning my colleagues that  unless  it  is imperatively necessary for him to appear here we have to heed the advice of the doctors. We cannot take a chance. Talagang delikado.

”Kung kailangan, dapat payagan. It’s a matter of life and death,” Enrile said amid reports that some close friends of the Arroyos had suggested that they seek medical help overseas.

Asked whether he agrees with the proposal of retired Bishop Oscar Cruz to have a “ceasefire” in the investigation of anomalies involving the Arroyos considering their delicate medical condition, Enrile said: “I suppose we have to be more understanding.”

”You cannot bring her (Mrs.Arroyo) here. She cannot even move her head. It’s so delicate that if she moves her head it could snap and it could affect her life,” the Senate chief said.

He also wonders why Justice Secretary Leila de Lima had to place the Arroyos in the Bureau of Immigration watchlist.  “Hindi ko alam kung anong dahilan nila bakit ilalagay (sila) sa watchlist. I cannot make a conclusion,” he said.

Sen.Panfilo Lacson will support any proposal to allow the Arroyos to go abroad for medical treatment if the recommendation would come from their doctors. “We will only listen to her doctors not to her spokesperson. Si (lawyer Raul) Lambino lang nagsabi.”

”Kasi walang competence ang spokesperson para sabihing sa US dapat magpagamot si GMA. Pag sabi ng doktor kailangan doon at walang kakayanan ang doktor dito why not?” he said.  

Watch list

The watch list order on  Mrs. Arroyo stays.

De Lima said  that Mrs. Arroyo’s travel restriction will remain in force until the former leader formally asks the government to lift the order.

“The watch list order is still there, whether or not I will lift it will depend kung ano ang justification. If there is, if there will be such a request. So ayaw ko na muna to comment on that without yet the formal request sa akin,” De Lima said.